Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,18
already in his hand.
I drew my own sword. Raura was already smiling—the girl loved a fight—and I realized I was smiling too.
“Come on, cuz,” she said, before she bounded into the mist, and I charged after her. Arlen cursed and followed us.
Chapter Eight
Chase
* * *
“Help me with the bodies,” Clearborn said, once we’d seen Lex and Penn escape the academy grounds safely. He glanced at Blake. “Can you go check on Skyla?”
Blake glanced at the guard house where the bodies were, then said, “Ah, yeah. Sure.”
As soon as he was gone, Clearborn stepped over Titus’s legs to open a supply locker. He drew out two tightly folded body bags and tossed one to me before he began to shake the other loose.
“It worries me that you keep these here as an academy essential,” I said, then realized how stupid that sounded when we were using them.
But Clearborn just smiled faintly. “How’d Blake do?”
“Fine,” I said, then felt a sudden flood of relief. “Better than I would have. He didn’t wolf out.”
“He has a good teacher.”
I scoffed at that, and Clearborn paused, fixing me with one of those level looks. Apparently, we couldn’t backtalk him, even if it was to be self-deprecating.
But I wasn’t sure I needed advice from the man with the body bags.
The two of us spread the crinkly black bags on the floor besides the bodies, then knelt.
I suddenly didn’t know where to put my hands to grip Titus and help swing him onto the material. I didn’t want to look stupid in front of Clearborn, though, so I finally grabbed his shoulders and heaved. He was heavier than he looked; I’d never realized before that the dead seem somehow heavier, as if our souls lighten the load of carrying our bodies around.
The two of us moved on to the second guard. Clearborn was breathing hard as he straightened, pressing his hand to the place where he’d been shot; I couldn’t tell if the blood stains on his shirt were from that first bullet or if his wound had opened again.
“Can I go get your car and bring it down here, sir?” I asked.
He nodded and pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Good thinking.”
I ran up to the academic building and got his car, drove with it down to the front gate. For a second when I arrived back at the gate, everything seemed preternaturally still, and I reached for my gun, afraid that someone had killed Clearborn while I was gone.
Then he stepped out of the guard shack, and relief flooded my chest. I jumped out and hustled to pop the hatch, before I had to face the guard shack. At least it was easier to move the bodies now that they were zipped into the bags.
“Let’s take them up and put them in the cafeteria refrigerator,” Clearborn said when he settled into the driver’s seat. “Then I need you to take Blake and go on patrol.”
“Blake?” I asked, as I drove the car up toward the cafeteria. “I thought maybe someone should stay with Skyla.”
“Mm.” Clearborn apparently wasn’t going to dignity what I thought with a discussion, and then I realized maybe he was right. We were under siege. I just didn’t want to leave my sister alone. He must have been musing whether or not Blake was too young to use, because he said thoughtfully, “He’s not a bad age for the change.”
Was there such a thing as a good age? I’d been forced into this life; now I didn’t know if I would choose it or not, if I had things to do over.
“You and I have never talked much, have we?” Clearborn mused as we carried the bodies in to the dining hall.
The hall was dimly lit, just the emergency lights glowing softly, and our feet seemed to echo through the empty space. It was hard to believe those tables and chairs were filled with students laughing and yelling and occasionally fighting not that long ago.
Given how much trouble Jensen, Rafe and Lex had found themselves in with Clearborn, I was pretty happy he and I hadn’t had much reason to chat. “No sir.”
But I knew he had his notes he kept on me, the same way he kept notes on all of us. I wondered what they said.
“Unlike the rest of your team,” he said drily, “you’re not much of a talker.”
“Well, you know the rest of my team. I don’t get much of a chance.”